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FUNERAL DETAILS

Annette Lippmann

Annette Lippmann, 100, of Jackson, Michigan, died on 14 March 2024.

The Funeral was A Private Graveside Service .

Rabbi Joshua Bennett officiated.

Click

to watch a video of the recorded service.

Family will be sitting Shiva privately.

Annette Helen Agranoff Lippmann was a singular brilliant bright light, the likes of which had never been seen before and will likely never be seen again. Annette will be forever missed by those who knew and loved her.

Born in Detroit October 6, 1923, the nurse in the Detroit hospital where she was born nicknamed her “sunny” because she had such a sunny disposition which persisted throughout her life and saw her to the age of 100, where the caregiver who looked after her for the last few months of her life also without knowing about her birth story also nicknamed her sunny.

Her enlightened, intelligent parents, William Agranoff, born in Russia and Faygle Pelavin, born in the Ukraine, met in Detroit and deliberately raised her to be a native speaker of Yiddish to preserve the Jewish culture, her first language. Annette was a child star in the Detroit depression era Jewish community, performing songs in Yiddish for the Jewish community.

She was the matriarch of her family: the brightest, funniest, most exuberant, a mother and grandmother who deeply cared about and loved her children Ray Lippmann, Martin Lippmann (deceased), Susan (James) Lippmann Bennett, and grandchildren Amy and William Bennett. She was also extremely close with her departed brother, Bernard Agranoff, who rose to be the head of the University of Michigan Neuroscience department and had a happy marriage that lasted for 64 years with her beloved, departed husband, Seymour “Al” Lippmann, who rose to be the head of research and development for Uniroyal during its heyday.

She often said that what she would like her epitaph to be was, “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants.” In a family where wit and humor were core values, no one could match her wit. Her last recorded joke, shortly before she died, occurred when she said to her caregiver, “Why is it that I can’t get up and do the things I want to do?” The caregiver replied, “You are 100 years old.” My mother quipped back, “Well, that explains it.” She loved to play cards and occasionally played the slot machines (and came out ahead) at the Greektown casino. When asked this year if she had to describe her life as a poker hand, she said her life was a Royal Flush.

She was a devoted Detroit Tiger’s fan and remembered the 1930’s line up of the team that had won the Pennant, which included Hank Greenberg, the Jewish baseball player. She remembered being taken to the first talking picture, the Jazz Singer, by her grandfather and was a lifelong lover of classic Hollywood romantic comedies and musicals.

She was inordinately proud of her Jewish heritage and instilled that in her children, and taught Yiddish for years at a Detroit area Jewish cultural school. She later had a career in public relations for Michigan Cancer and then Michigan Diabetes.

Child of immigrants, she worked hard, lived through challenging times during the Great Depression, and received a full scholarship to Wayne State University at which time she met her husband through mutual friends at a holiday party, where a little tipsy, she decided my father was cute and sat in his lap for the evening. He asked her out and six months later they were married. Seymour, who received a full scholarship to Cooper Union in New York, was also brilliant as a scientist and engineer, and came to Detroit during World War II because General Motors was hiring and despite his being at the top of his graduating class at Cooper Union, he could not get a decent job on the east coast because he was Jewish and began his life long career at the General Motors subsidiary, U.S. Rubber, which was eventually split off from GM and renamed Uniroyal. Annette and Al were the love of each other’s lives and had a wonderful run, in later years traveling the world together from Europe to China to Central America.

Annette was herself until the end, always singing, joking, and appreciating every day. Her ending was as good as one as anyone could wish for. She was never in pain, never even had arthritis, and went to sleep and never woke up, passing away peacefully, lovingly cared for until the end.

There is so much to tell about her amazing, exuberant, joy filled life, but we must leave the rest of her story to be remembered by those who knew and loved her. Toward the end of her life, she related that she wanted her life celebrated, not mourned – as a truly wonderful life, well lived. Bravo, applause Annette, time to take a bow.